Dear St. Gabriel Parishioners:
- As the weeks of the Easter Season draw on, especially this Sixth Sunday of Easter, we hear more and more in our Scriptures about God - The Holy Spirit. In the forty days between Jesus’ Resurrection – Easter Sunday and Jesus’ Ascension to Heaven – next Sunday, Jesus is helping his disciples realize that He’s not going to be with them physically as He was during the three years of His public ministry. He will not be at their sides to point the way, for them to talk with face-to-face. Yet the Holy Spirit makes Jesus Christ present in a new way. This new way is through the Church. In the Third Eucharistic Prayer, following the consecration, the priest concretely prays about this, saying: “... grant that we, who are nourished by the Body and Blood of your Son, and filled with his Holy Spirit, may become one body, one spirit in Christ
This is why we all come together on the Lord’s Day: not only to be united with Jesus through Holy Communion, but also to be united more strongly with each other. The Mass—like the whole Christian life—is not just about me and Jesus. Coming together through the Mass is the greatest way that God has to unite us into the one body of the Church. The Holy Spirit is the One who helps us see why and how this is.
- Please consider to share the Blessing of God that you have received in participating in the Annual Catholic Appeal Campaign this year 2020. Materials have been sent to each of the household from the Archdiocese and our own parish to inform and invite you to learn about over 60 different ministries in the Archdiocese support by the Annual Catholic Appeal. Individually we cannot respond to all the legitimate needs of the people of God in the Archdiocese; but TOGETHER, we will be able to accomplish the need for all people of God.
- Thank you for your generous and consistent support to St. Gabriel year-round and the Annual Catholic Appeal 2019. I’m sure that with your help and support, together, we will fulfill our parish goal this year. I’m counting on each of you to join with me in supporting the common Ministries that we share together as a local Church of the Archdiocese of Seattle.
- To ensure “A future full of hope” in continue of Jesus’ ministry in our time and local Church, Gabriel Parish’s share in this Annual Catholic Appeal this year with a goal of $87,911.00.
- This weekend is the Annual Catholic Appeal Witness Speaker week, (Remigio Miguel, a Member of the Guatemalans Community at Prince of Peace, Belfair) will be speaking about the meaning of the Annual Catholic Appeal that had an impact in his faith life and our faith community. A word of “thank” to Remigio Miguel for his witness to the impact of God’s gifts in his faith life and willingness to share with our parish community.
Thank you for your participation and support of the Annual Catholic Appeal last year; please joins with me and other parishioners in supporting the many ministries in the Annual Catholic Appeal of 2020.
May the Joy and Blessing of the Easter Season continue to help us actively involve in the Ministry of Jesus in our Church’s today.
Christ’s Peace,
Fr. Phuong Hoang